ChatGPT 4o and other versions of the AI chatbot will be retiring this month, as confirmed by OpenAI in a recent post. Having the new ChatGPT version allows the company to sunset the previous models and this is also
possible when OpenAI believes that the upgraded versions are better and stable to deliver improved performance and accuracy for the users.
ChatGPT 5 is now widely available which means people rely on the newer models, giving OpenAI more reasons to wind up the previous ones.
ChatGPT 4o Goes Away In February 2026: What Now?
OpenAI has announced that ChatGPT 4o and a few more AI models will be retiring on February 13, 2026. The list includes ChatGPT 4.1, 4.1 Mini, o4 Mini and GPT Instant/Thinking among others. The biggest news about ChatGPT 4o going away which many claimed was better than the new ChatGPT 5 version when it was introduced earlier.
The company was even forced to retain the 4o model as it delivered better responses and was more conversational and not robotic like the GPT 5 model. While OpenAI claims the usage of ChatGPT 4o has reduced, many on social media suggest otherwise and they are not sure if the company really needs to retire the popular version so early.
Having said that, OpenAI would claim that keeping all the models running is cost intensive and its resources will be stretched, let alone the hardware needed to power and have them perform at full tilt.
OpenAI has launched an intriguing product in the form of Prism which caters to the scientist community and enables them to access AI for free and collaborate using it. This is a cloud-based workspace where AI comes to form and help researchers with research workflows and scientific writing.
The company claims to have combined the multi-layer process of scientific research and made a one-size fit all platform that is free and ready to use for anyone with a personal ChatGPT account with other tiers getting it later.
